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I had this problem when converting a PDF into an MS Word document. Here is what worked for me.

The Solution:1. Export the file as an PDF X 4:2008. (See details below ONLY if you really want to know)2. Once the PDF is created, open it in Adobe Acrobat and flatten the transparencies using preflight. With Creative Cloud Acrobat, it was Edit >Preflight and then just find the PDF fix up tool that when clicked, will flatten it.3. Once that is done, save the file and then using Adobe Acrobat, try to convert it to an MS Word document.

What is a PDF/X-4 file?

PDF/X-4 files are regular PDF 1.6 files.

The use of transparency is allowed.

All color data can be grayscale, CMYK, named spot colors, RGB, Lab or ICC-profile based.

Image data can be 8-bit or 16-bit. 16-bit images are still rarely used and may cause issues with quite a few RIPs and workflows.

The use of layers is allowed. In PDF/X-4 these are not the ‘regular’ PDF layers (OCG or Optional Content Groups for the techies among us)but the more sophisticated OCCD layers (which actually combine multiple OCGs in a group). If a regular PDF has for instance a layer with comments and another one with contact information, both layers could be combined in a single ‘info’ OCCD layer. When I updated this page early 2008, there weren’t any workflows on the market yet with proper support for handling OCCDs. Meanwhilecallas pdfToolbox is the first PDF tool that has proper support for them.

The following restrictions apply to PDF/X-4 files:

All fonts must be embedded in the file. Embedding OpenType fonts is allowed.

There is no application called "Adobe" - what software are you using to convert your PDF files to Word? Do you have Adobe Acrobat, or are you using the ExportPDF subscription service? Is this happening with any PDF file you try to process, or just one or a small subset of files? Sometimes PDF documents are of very low quality (they still look good on the screen, but the data that is stored in them is not fit for content extraction), and if you tr to convert one of those documents, it is not surprising that it did not work. So, try with a good PDF file (or just one from a different source) and see if you run into the same problem.

I have had the software for around 3 months and was able to convert all PDF's with no problem. This issue occurs with every single pdf that I try. I have tried to print it to pdf and then convert it..no luck. What does no file created mean?

No file created means that it was not able to create an output file. This could have a number of reasons: One is that it was not able to create the output file (e.g. because of file permissions). Another reason could be - as I indicated earlier - that the PDF file is corrupt.

Just to make sure that we are not going on a wild goose chase, can you please try to convert this file:

This is a very simple PDF file that definitely can be converted to Word. Download the file and put it on your desktop, then when you select the output file name, also put that on your desktop (this assumes that you can read and write from/to your desktop).

Do you get the same error?

If so, maybe it's time to repair your Acrobat installation: On Windows, you will find this option under the Help menu.

This means that there is something wrong with your setup. It could have a ton of reasons that are outside of Acrobat (e.g. a corrupt system library that Acrobat uses and depends on, but that is not part of the Acrobat installation).

The repair should have taken care of anything inside Acrobat, but there is one more option: Adobe has an experimental "Cleaner" tool that removes anything that Acrobat created from your system. You can find the tool here: http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/acrobatcleaner.html - You would have to deactivate and uninstall Acrobat, then run the cleaner, and then install Acrobat again.

Chances are that these problems are also the source for your original problem: Acrobat was not able to write to the file because of permissions problems.

Is this your own computer, or is it administrated by an IT department?

If you have an IT department that usually takes care of your computer, chances are that they are also responsible for these permission limitations, and you may want to talk to them about your problems. If not, then we don't know why these permissions were changed since you first installed Acrobat.

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